The end of the world is nigh in Code Vein II, as the calamitous Luna Rapacis progresses and corrupts the Revenants who had, until this point, been able to live in harmony with mankind. But there’s still time to fix this. With a story that’s somewhere between Quantum Leap and X-Men: Days of Future Past, you need to jump back in time to visit and team up with Revenant heroes of a century ago, looking for a way to reawaken them in the present and stop what’s coming.
Back in 2019, the original Code Vein brought a whole host of interesting ideas to the Soulslike form, from the ability to jump between character build Blood Codes, to the Partner NPC characters that would fight alongside you throughout. And yes, it came with anime-style graphics too. The Soulslike subgenre already felt pretty full and saturated back in 2019, but now in 2026, it’s bursting at the seams with competition. Bandai Namco’s answer is to take the core of what worked well before, and then bring so, so much more player customisation to the table.
Code Vein II Producer Keita Iizuka explained, “Code Vein belongs to the soulslike genre, but even within the action RPG there are many more genres, for example, exploratory open world games. But there aren’t as clear-cut boundaries as before, I would say. So yes, probably you are right, it’s becoming even more competitive, however because of that, it’s very important for us to really be mindful of our strength. It’s because of their competition that we are more stimulated to create something even better. So that’s something that we have hopefully realised and achieved in this version.”
Take the Partner system in general. It’s still great to have another AI partner there to draw aggro from enemies, dish out some damage of their own, and be ready to revive you with a chunk of their own health should you fall – this Restorative Offering now puts them into a cooldown for a time – but now all of that is optional. This is now branded as Summoning, but you also have the choice to use Assimilation, to absorb you Partner and add their strengths to enhance your powers, stats and abilities. If you found the Partners a touch frustrating to in their behaviours before, then you can sideline them through the whole game now.
Iizuka-san explained, “The reason why we allowed Assimilation is because by just having two characters all the time for every fight, the fighting style became fairly set, so the Partner just takes on a certain role and the player would take a certain role. We wanted to remove that kind of boundary, so that’s why we have created the assimilation mode, to be able to really see the fights from a different angle.
“The emotional arc is an important one. So the characters, you will be able to really spend one-on-one time with them to learn more about their backstories, their emotions, really have very heartfelt conversations. So that’s something that we have really valued.”
You’ll spend time with these characters regardless of how you play. This new world and story sees your protagonist journeying back in time to team up with the Revenant heroes of legend, the Fallen Heroes of the Resurgence, and our hands-on saw us partnering with Josée Anjou back in the day. Battling alongside her through the Sunken City to find a source for the pollution within the Sunken Pylon dungeon that we played. Along the way, there’s various narrative interludes that explore Josée’s character, the relationship she had with her sister and what befell them.
“The preview that you have played focused on Josée’s as her main narrative of her arc,” Iizuka-san said, “but there are other arcs involving other characters, and the scenes that you would be able to experience. With the time travel axis as well, you would be able to go back in time and then meet the characters at different points in their lives, to change the outcome, but also to experience the weight of history as well. So I hope that the players get to enjoy that.”
Putting the narrative focus on a range of characters that aren’t your own is an interesting way to frame the story, especially with the potential to bounce back and forth between time periods, and it also makes sense with just how goofy you can make your custom character. There’s a huge range of visual customisation that lets you fully indulge your more absurdist impulses. Want to wear a top hat with a snowman sticking out the top of it? Well, I certainly did when fiddling with the character creator, and that’s just scratching the surface of what’s possible here.
Is that a snowman in your hat?
“It’s not something that we actively specifically ordered to the developing team […] but the customisation team really took on an active role in coming up with this even further evolved version of the customisation build system,” Iizuka-san told us. “ But something that, as a team, we were very conscious of, is that we wanted to deliver a system that is easy to build, customisable, and that the outcome is always great-looking anime-like characters. So there are many numbers of parts, but always the end result to something that is great. That is something that we want to aspire to create.”
The visual customisation is echoed within the combat builds, again taking the core of the ideas from the original Code Vein and expanding them greatly. The Blood Codes that you apply determine the attributes of your character through six categories, with the equipment and weapons that you then equip putting a burden on these figures, which can lead you to being overburdened and suffer penalties to your play, in turn pushing you to align your choice of weaponry and play style.
Talking about the new possibilities here, Iizuka-san said, “So we have added two new categories into the weapons, as well as two different drain attacks as well, and when it comes to Formae, there are many different varieties that we have added. So by combining them all, there are a lot more that the players could enjoy, so I hope they do.”
You’ll really want to make the most of your Formae abilities (formerly Gifts), the skills that you can use for offence or defence, building up to the Bequeathed Formae as your most powerful ability, summoning a special weapon to your hands to unleash hefty damage. That will require you to have enough Ichor, drawn from enemies by performing Jails (the rebranded Blood Veil) to drain their blood. There’s additional Boosters sprinkled on top for what is a particularly broad and complex system of stats, abilities and synergies for players to find.
It’s this depth of customisation that could end up being Code Vein II’s biggest strength. The Sunken Pylon dungeon felt a little by-the-numbers with its Soulslike structure and fairly samey abandoned, ruined industrial look. There is a more open overworld that can be navigated on a motorcycle, which I didn’t get to play, and I’d be curious to see just how the story handles bouncing between time periods and the character growth. There’s not too long to wait, though, with Code Vein II out later this month.
The opening of 2026 is a busy one for Soulslike fans, and Code Vein II is first in line with a refreshed take on the original’s anime visuals, more extensive character customisation, and a characterful time-travelling tale.
